Freedom

He has come to give us life and life abundantly. We have been set free. Mercy. Love. Hope. Joy. Peace. Life. Salvation. Have you ever had the overwhelming flood of God washing over you? The time when you bask in His goodness, His mercy, and His love. To feel the washing of it. The rising of joy in it. The healing and freedom. The walls come tumbling down and you let them. You know you're not worthy, but He loves you anyway. The shame and the unworthiness have no place. Free to be who He made you in Him. When your hands are raised and there is nothing but God alone. The things you have been trying too hard to keep in check all fade away~ the bitterness, the worries, the cares of this world. It' all for the glory of the King.  When you build walls so high and so thick sometimes you even start to wall God off. I don't want Him walled off. I want everything He promised me. I want Him. I am laying down my trowel and letting God reconstruct the ruins. I will continue to wait patiently as He does His work and will trust Him for it.

God Is So Good!

God is so good! God is so good! He's so good to me! Don't you love it when God meets you in the simple places. Like on the recliner in the early hours of the morning when all the kids and even the dogs are actually still asleep and you can enjoy your coffee and the peace and quiet. Especially the times when we have our own agenda of what God is obviously going to do in our preplanned meeting time with Him and then He sidetracks you to a place in His Word that penetrates your heart to the core and brings tears and repentance and renews yet again your faith and love and awe for this eternal maker. Headed to Romans this morning I found myself in Malachi instead. Over the past year I have been spending alot of time in the Old Testament for some reason and have enjoyed it immensely. Chapter 4 spoke so clearly to so many things that God has been whispering in my ear and I have been very good at ignoring. Today He brought me to my spiritual knees again in the areas of tithing. "Trust me in this" says the Lord. It appears to be so much easier to hold on tight to the lesser pay that has been coming in here over the past year and worldly it makes no sense to be letting it go. The deeper issue tho is my heart. Why don't I trust God with His own money? What is my biggest fear? That He won't be faithful to His very own word? Oh Lord, teach me to let go. "You have said 'It is futile to serve God. What will we gain by carrying out His requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty?'" Is that not what I was just whining about the other Monday morning my friend? How sweet of God to settle this so quickly in my heart. How many times do I count all the little things that nobody even seems to notice as not having any value? The encouragement, the prayers, the steadfastness, the stubborn standing on the word of God, the continuous attitude checks, the continuous training in our home, the diligence of not letting the "world" influence, the continuous battle within myself against flesh and spirit. God reminded me that He notices. He called me His treasured possession. Treasured. Just let that sink in. God's Treasured Possession. He says it makes a difference to Him and that one day He will come and make a distinction between those who are His and those who are not. "But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings."

As I was consumed with what God was telling me this morning this verse made me stop and brought me as close to tears as I ever get. A few years back a lady from our church lost her son in a horrible car accident between two friends playing chicken. For the past 5 years we have watched and prayed as she triumphantly dealt with the tragedy, struggled to trust God in it, continued her witness to her unsaved family, loved and cared for her grandsons that were spared, and longed for her son. Last week she herself was killed in a tragic car accident, leaving behind those family members not trusting in God. Kathy revered Gods name. He himself has brought righteousness with healing in its wings. She now stands before her God. Scripture goes on to say "And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall." Rejoice Kathy and dance like David before your King. He promised He would wipe away all our tears and He has now wiped away yours. As for you, dear friends, how's your heart? Are you right before your creator? Do you know the saving grace of the savior that went to the cross to spare you from God's wrath for your sins? His name is Jesus. And he says you are His treasured possession as well.

Did you know?

Did you know that God loves you?? Really, really loves you like crazy?? It's what He's been reminding me of over and over again lately and I just thought you might need a reminder too. Happy Monday!

These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name...... [I will] acknowledge that I have loved you.
From Revelation 3:7-9

Ponderings

There are so many God things that I have been continuously pondering lately. I have been enjoying reading some of Corrie ten Booms book's and am always encouraged, ashamed, and inspired by them. What a life she led for the Lord! What great trust and peace God gave to her through her trials, allowing her to share that with the world through her experiences. One of the more persistent thoughts that have been rolling around my brain has to do with God's will in our lives and where we are serving Him. One of her comments in her book "Clippings from My Notebook" really struck me last night. "I was the same Corrie ten Boom. But in the concentration camp I was in the place where God had called me, and He was my strength. Here I was not in His will, and without Him I was nothing~ I was stupid, weak, and helpless." I have had experiences of both being empowered and used by God, full of great joy, energy and clear thinking and also times of dullness, suppression, and frustration. Do those times indicate that we are out of God's will in our lives, or that He is purifying us in our sinful nature? Believing that Scripture teaches that God is sovereign over everything I know that no matter what I do, where I go, or what happens is the will of God, but are there certain ways that He directs that we choose to be dull to? And what, then, when if you're the wife and long to honor God through submission? Hmmmm..... what a marvelous God we have to intertwine all these things to somehow still present us as righteous before Him one day.

The other thing I have been pondering a lot is the word of God itself. Primarily the reason that professing Christians are straying from it. Why it is losing it's place and value even in the church, but primarily in the believers life? Psalm 119 was such a sweet reminder to me this morning of God's word and the value God himself puts on it. Why is the word not more highly valued in our lives? Why is it that we think we can twist it? Why is it that we think we have the right to choose how to discern it and what to obey in it? When did we cross over into thinking that somehow we stand above it, rather than humbly coming below it in honor of what God has to say? Why do professing Christians not bother to even read it? I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand your statutes. It is time for you to act, O Lord; your law is being broken. Because I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold, and because I consider all your precepts right, I hate every wrong path. Psalm 119:125-128

And I loved this quote from Corrie ten Boom's book "Tramp for the Lord": "When the Bible interferes with man's theology it always causes a strain." And what is it that is so important in the Bible? It is the revealing of a just God, the creator of the universe and all that is in it, who will one day call all of us to account according to His standards. But the story doesn't end there. For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. Jesus became the perfect sacrifice to cover the sins that we can never atone for. We were by nature objects of God's wrath, but because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions- it is by grace you are saved, through faith. He has done it all. He promises.